Atract is aliterary work and, in current usage, oftenreligious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time; by the early 21st century, the term refers to a briefpamphlet with religious or political themes. Tracts are often either left for someone to find or distributed as amedium ofmass communication in the context ofproselytism. However, there have been times in history when the term also implied much longer, tome-like works. The derivativetractate of scripture or theTalmud is the equivalent inHebrew literature to achapter of theChristian Bible.
The distribution of tracts predates the development of theprinting press, with the term being applied by scholars to religious and political works at least as early as the 7th century.[1] They were used to disseminate the teachings ofJohn Wycliffe in the 14th century. As a political tool, they proliferated throughoutEurope during the 17th century. They have been printed as persuasive religious material since the invention ofJohann Gutenberg'sprinting press, being widely utilised byMartin Luther during the start of theProtestant Reformation.
As religious literature, tracts were used throughout the turbulence of the Reformation and the various upheavals of the 17th century. They came to such prominence again in theOxford Movement for reform within theChurch of England that the movement became known as "Tractarianism", after the publication in the 1830s and 1840s of a series of religiousessays collectively calledTracts for the Times.
TheTracts were written by a group ofAnglicanclergy includingJohn Henry Newman (later aCatholiccardinal andsaint),John Keble,Henry Edward Manning, andEdward Pusey. Thetheological discourses within sought to establish continuity between the Church of England and thepatristic period ofchurch history. These vastly influencedAnglo-Catholicism, and varied in length from four to over 400 pages.[2] An important center for the spreading of tracts was theLondon-basedReligious Tract Society.[3][4] Tracts were used both withinEngland, affecting the conversion of pioneer missionary toQing China,Hudson Taylor,[5] as well as in the crosscultural missions that movements such as Taylor founded: theChina Inland Mission.
Charles Spurgeon wrote many tracts, and in addition to these evangelical writings, his "Penny Sermons" were printed weekly and distributed widely by the millions and used in a similar way, and they still are today. In theUnited States, theAmerican Tract Society distributed vast quantities of tracts in many of languages to newly arrived immigrants atEllis Island, and sought to assist them in their struggles to adapt to their new country.[6]
The publishing of tracts for religious purposes has continued unabated, with many Christian tract ministries, in particular, existing today.[7][8] TheAmerican Tract Society has continuously published literature of this type since 1825; aroundAllhallowtide, around 3 million alone are purchased annually to be distributed by Christians.[9]
By the late 19th century,Bible Students associated withZion's Watch Tower Tract Society were distributing tens of millions of tracts each year;[10] by the start ofWorld War I, they had distributed hundreds of millions of tracts in dozens of languages worldwide.[11] Now named Watchtower and Bible Tract Society, the organisation continues to publish hundreds of millions of religious tracts in over 400 languages, which are distributed byJehovah's Witnesses.[12][13]
As evangelistic tools, tracts became prominent in theJesus movement. One of the most widely distributed, and one that continues to be handed out en masse, is "The Four Spiritual Laws" authored byBill Bright ofCampus Crusade for Christ and first published in 1965. "This Was Your Life" was the first of many tracts written and illustrated byJack Chick, whose later "Chick tracts" followed the pattern of vividcartoon images.
In the 1980s and 1990s,Last Days Ministries reprinted articles in itsLast Days Newsletter byKeith Green and other contemporary and historic writers includingDavid Wilkerson,Leonard Ravenhill,Winkie Pratney,Charles Finney,John Wesley, andWilliam Booth. More recently,Living Waters Publications prints tracts such as "The Atheist Test" or "Are You Good Enough to Go to Heaven?", as well as tracts which feature attention-grabbing illusions or gags. These include the "Million Dollar Bill", which caused a legal controversy in June 2006. Most Christian tract ministries operate asnon-profit "faith" organizations, to the degree some do not charge fees for their tracts. One of the most productive is Fellowship Tract League, which has printed over 4 billion Gospel tracts since 1978, available in over 70 languages and distributed in over 200 countries and territories.[14]
Since the 2010s, Saint Paul Street Evangelization, a Catholicapostolate focused onevangelism, has been publishing tracts for distribution especially while engaged instreet ministry.[15]
Tracts are also widely used inMethodist tradition, being published by apostolates such as the Pilgrim Tract Society.[16]
"Tracting" is acolloquialism commonly used bymissionaries ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in reference to their door-to-door proselytising whether or not actual tracts are dispensed.[17]
Brochure-like tracts, also known aspamphlets, advocating political positions have also been used throughout history as well. They were used throughout Europe in the 17th century, with those in 18th century featuring prominently in the political unrest leading to theAmerican Revolution, and in an English response to theFrench Revolution, a "pamphlet war" known as theRevolution Controversy. A well-known example of a far-reaching tract from this era isCommon Sense byThomas Paine.
Tracts were used for political purposes throughout the 20th century. They were used to spreadNazi propaganda inCentral Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. According to the aforementionedJack Chick, his impetus to design cartoon-based religious tracts was inspired by similar literature used byChinese Communists to wide success.[18] In the months before theJohn F. Kennedy assassination,Lee Harvey Oswald handed out pamphlets promotingFidel Castro andCommunistCuba on the streets ofNew Orleans, Louisiana.
Prominent among them was what in the context of life in the world of Islam one might call the Christianqiblah, the direction the Christians faced when they prayed, and the Jews, who faced Jerusalem, Christians customarily faced east to pray. This distinctive, Christian behavior came up for discussion in virtually every apologetic tract in Syriac or Arabic written by a Christian in the early Islamic period. In their answers to the queries of the Muslims on the subject, Christian writers never failed to mention that the reason they prayed facing east was due to the fact that the Garden of Eden was planted in the east (Genesis 2:8) and that at the end of time, at the second coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east. Consequently, they insisted all Christians face this direction when they pray.
Evangelicals paid close attention to developments across the Atlantic. They saw in the efforts of their British cousins the potential the press offered for spreading the gospel through large-scale and inexpensive printing of tracts and Bibles.